Allie & Bino, the albino orpington chicks

[shadow rabbit10]

Nic red eyes! So cool to see them on a chicken.

 

[chiques chicks]

@chippysmom327 still not sure if my second one is hen or roo. First is obviously a hen.
I have had incubator trouble and lost ~100 eggs, but I'm still trying for more!

 

[chippysmom327]

This is one of the coolest threads on BYC I've read yet! 

Nic red eyes! So cool to see them on a chicken.

Thank you both!

@chippysmom327 still not sure if my second one is hen or roo. First is obviously a hen.
I have had incubator trouble and lost ~100 eggs, but I'm still trying for more!

Well, what are you hoping for? Roo I'd assume? And that stinks on the losing eggs thing.

 

[chiques chicks]

A good rooster is always welcome in a breeding program. I actually spend more time choosing which rooster I'm going to keep than which hens. Of course the hens normally get sold and the extra roosters become dinner.

 

[chippysmom327]

A good rooster is always welcome in a breeding program. I actually spend more time choosing which rooster I'm going to keep than which hens. Of course the hens normally get sold and the extra roosters become dinner.

Very true. The roo is half the program, the hen's only a smaller fraction.

 

[enola]

Has any one on this thread researched the ramifications of breeding two albino chickens? I just wonder if it would be a better idea to only have one albino parent?

 

[chiques chicks]

Hi @enola!

Keep running in to you on here, love your insights.

I have discussed it with someone in my state university aG dept ( Penn State, a good ag dept). I was told they can live normal chicken lives and reproduce normally.

There is the issue of being closely related, I believe. As currently there are only for that I'm aware of, all from my flock, this will probably be an issue.

Personally, assuming I have two hens, I will probably need them back to the original rooster, if he lives through the winter, he is 3. I hope to then introduce other normal birds in to the breeding to increase size and other traits then breed back to albino.

I'm not well versed in genetics so I'm winging it. This wasn't the original intent of my breeding, so I'm learning as I go.

I was crossing colors for my own fun and enjoyment. This happened. I'm not a breeder per se, just an older guy playing around with poultry in his back yard trying to produce sustainable birds for eggs and food. By the same token, I take what I get. Chippy just happened to need eggs for the easter hatch and no one else had any to send her.

I don't treast my flock as pets, they aren't handled, they only come running for food. I don't even like white birds, actually, I consider them predator bait. I keep one white silkie mix just for that purpose.

Right now my biggest concern is AI. Not that it is here, but I am in the latest egg producing county in the country and if it does get here, I fear backyard flocks will be destroyed as it really hurt the industry here 30 years ago.

 

[Chickenchick11]

Pictures of Allie's albino eyes by request.

Oh Allie

Bino's eyes are paler, and almost blue. He wasn't out in the run, I didn't feel like going through the hassle just to photograph his eyes. I'll get some later and add them to this post.

Very cool!

 

[troyer]

Very true. The roo is half the program, the hen's only a smaller fraction.

I agree that it is very nice and quite helpful to have a very good rooster, but in my chicken breeding program the hen is 60% important and the rooster is 40%. Don't get me wrong, I will use the best rooster I have, but I build my flock with the hens. In my experience you will get to where you want to go in about half the time with an excellent hen versus an excellent rooster. If the rooster and hen are of exceptional quality you can obviously expect to reach your goal a whole lot quicker than when only one is excellent. In almost all other farm animals the female is the one to focus on, if the female is excellent, the male will also be excellent 90% of the time. I know of several chicken breeders that focused heavily on the males, mainly using them to breed from like you just mentioned. It worked for awhile, but now they are wondering where they went wrong. Time and time and time again it is being proven that the female will pass on her traits the most. I consider color selection to be a 50 - 50, but not type and production. I am aware that there are rooster lines and hen lines in the same breed, but that happened because the breeder selected 95% for rooster or hen traits. I know that the roosters almost always catch our eyes the most. I very strongly believe that a lot of good things have been lost in a lot of the heritage breeds because people have tended to selectively breed what they like in the rooster and not so much in the hens.
It is a bit difficult for me to express my mind here, but I hope you can understand what I'm saying. If not, feel free to ask questions or express your own opinions.

 

[chippysmom327]

Originally Posted by chiques chicks                                                                                                                                                                                                      A good rooster is always welcome in a breeding program. [COLOR=0000FF]I actually spend more time choosing which rooster I'm going to keep than which hens[/COLOR]. Of course the hens normally get sold and the extra roosters become dinner.

[COLOR=0000FF]Very true. The roo is half the program, the hen's only a smaller fraction.[/COLOR]

   I agree that it is very nice and quite helpful to have a very good rooster, but in my chicken breeding program the hen is 60% important and the rooster is 40%. Don't get me wrong, I will use the best rooster I have, but I build my flock with the hens. In my experience you will get to where you want to go in about half the time with an excellent hen versus an excellent rooster. [COLOR=000000]If the rooster and hen are of exceptional quality you can obviously expect to reach your goal a whole lot quicker than when only one is excellent.[/COLOR] In almost all other farm animals the female is the one to focus on, if the female is excellent, the male will also be excellent 90% of the time. I know of several chicken breeders that focused heavily on the males, mainly using them to breed from like you just mentioned. It worked for awhile, but now they are wondering where they went wrong. Time and time and time again it is being proven that the female will pass on her traits the most. I consider color selection to be a 50 - 50, but not type and production.  I am aware that there are rooster lines and hen lines in the same breed, but that happened because the breeder selected 95% for rooster or hen traits. I know that the roosters almost always catch our eyes the most. I very strongly believe that a lot of good things have been lost in a lot of the heritage breeds because people have tended to selectively breed what they like in the rooster and not so much in the hens. 
   It is a bit difficult for me to express my mind here, but I hope you can understand what I'm saying. If not, feel free to ask questions or express your own opinions.

Very good point! Thanks for the insight! That clears a lot of things up that I was confused on in general chicken genetics.